Fox News claims former star host Tucker Carlson breached his contract: Axios

• Fox News notified Tucker Carlson's attorneys that he breached his contract with his new Twitter show, per Axios.

• Carlson was ousted from Fox News in late April following the network's record settlement with Dominion.

• Carlson's attorney is arguing that Fox News is infringing on Carlson's free speech.

Fox News notified Tucker Carlson's attorneys on Wednesday that the former star host breached his contract on Tuesday by launching a new streaming show on Twitter, according to a report from Axios.

On Tuesday, Carlson posted a 10-minute monologue video to Twitter, nearly a month after announcing he would start a show on the platform.

Shortly after, according to Axios, Fox News' general counsel sent a letter to Carlson's attorney saying he was in breach of contract, setting up a potential lawsuit.

"Pursuant to the terms of the Agreement, Mr. Carlson's 'services shall be completely exclusive to Fox,'" the network's general counsel Bernar Gugar wrote, according to the letter seen by Axios.

Formerly Fox News' star primetime host, Carlson was taken off the air on April 24 of this year — less than a week after Fox News settled a defamation suit brought by Dominion Voting Systems for a record $787.5 million.

Since Carlson's ouster, there has been speculation as to why he was dumped — and the apparent leak of embarrassing messages that had been redacted in the Dominion lawsuit — and a squabble between the two parties over Carlson's contract, which runs up until January 2025.

Fox News would like to keep paying Carlson until then and keep him off rival airwaves.

Carlson for his part was already setting up for potential legal action. In early May, Carlson's attorney accused Fox News of breach of contract and fraud in a letter sent to Fox ahead of his announcement that he'd bring his show to Twitter.

"Fox defends its very existence on freedom of speech grounds," Bryan Freedman, Carlson's attorney, told Axios. "Now they want to take Tucker Carlson's right to speak freely away from him because he took to social media to share his thoughts on current events."

Neither Fox News nor Carlson's attorney immediately responded to a request for comment.

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